ek madhav baug

I went to watch the Hindi adaptation of the play Ek Madhav Baug at Prithvi Theatre. It is a play about a mother getting to know about her son's homosexuality. What was running through my mind was the movie Memories in March, that dealt with a similar subject. Though similar, the way the story was projected is what made a difference. It was an amazing one actor play that was superbly performed by Mona Ambegaonkar.
The setting is of an enactment of a play within the play which makes it even more amazing. She keeps the audience captivated through out the period of a little more than an hour, as she depicts the story portraying the emotions of the different characters.
She enacts a story of a divorced mother who has raised her three children and leads an independent life in her home at madhav baug. On a rainy day she decides to take leave from her office and stays back at home, only to receive a phone call that informs her that one of her son is gay. She is shattered as she is not able to understand how her child who she thought had not even grown up had a different preferences. The play here on shows how the love of the mother for her son, makes her come out of the narrow minded thinking that doesn't think much of others who are just 'not the same'.
When she confronts her son, he doesnt deny it, but rather gives her a pen drive which he says is his diary that he wants her to read. when she reads it on the laptop, it is actually a journal that he had kept of what he wanted to share with his mother about the fellings and emotions that evoked in him making him different from others. He tells a tale of how he tried to cope up with the situation and tried to alter his orientation. Through out as the mother reads the journal, she feels the pain of what her dear child had to go through as he didn't have the answers to the questions that came to his mind and how he couldn't just come up to his mother and talk about it.
Then comes the climax, where she rounds up an excellent performance as she comes closer to her son to be part of his life and understand him better and support him in his perplexities.
Once again, hats off to the writer of the original play for the way it was created and to actress for pulling off an amazing performance.

TED ka Masala

I was first introduced to TED talks about a year and a half back. I have since then seen a lot of interesting talks through the videos on their website. Exploring more about the events, I saw that there are quite a few independent events associated with TED that happen around me in cities like Pune and Ahmedabad, and of course in Mumbai. I missed out on the events organized at Gateway and Bandra and the one at ASB is invite only. Anyways, it was an awesome experience never the less. The event was well organized within the campus of IIT Powai.
The event started off with the talk from Nipun Mehta, who is the founder of service space. He shared his story of how surprised he was when he took a tour of Gujarat and found people who generate generosity. He showed examples of how you don't need to have things to give. He shared examples of people who have spread the generosity. The focus of his talk was about an inner transformation that happens when people indulge in an act of generosity.
The next talk was from Gaurav Gupta, who is the leading advisor from Dalberg, gave a very practical talk on the work that is going out there to provide the basic necessities of life to those who live "off-grid". Off-grid is the term used to describe those who are "unplugged" from the urban infrastructure that provides us water, electricity, sanitation, LPG for cooking and other basic needs. His presentation introspected into the fact that how innovations in one field make it possible to develop other solutions that can be used for development. He also talked about how these off-grid communities are spending so much money for these basic necessities money model and how they can get better facilities at a much cheaper cost with some innovation. A very practical solution to problems that seems insurmountable.
Then there was a stage performance. It was a play from a group of young and talented girls from Reality Gives, that showed the plight of life in the poor slums of Dharavi from the stand-point of a little girl growing up in a family in those slums.
The last item before the break was a video screening of a ted talk exploring the 4a.m. mystery that cracked up everyone.
The session began after the break with Rahul Hasija, taking everyone on his quest for learning. He started with exploring what importance a degree holds in the eyes of those that work hard for it. Then he went on to explain what learning really means to him and how he tries to make his learning more interactive. How he travels to get the opportunity to connect with people and understand what they do and how he tries to bring more within the boundaries that the society has created around him, making him more of an individual.
Next up was a dutch artist who has been in Mumbai since 2010 exploring art as a medium of self expression. She described how art has helped everyone to express themselves in a manner that is easier for others to understand and how bland the interactions would be if the society didn't develop art.
Then there was another screening of a ted talk, david damberger speaking about why it is important to admit mistakes to be able to learn from them and make the efforts more effective. He shares stories of how well directed development projects failed to yield results for the beneficiaries. How they started the culture of admitting mistakes and publishing failure reports on an annual basis.
The next person to take the stage was Harish Iyer, who is a human rights activist. He was a victim of sexual abuse in his childhood and talked about how he never could talk about it to anyone, because no one talks about sex in the society. He explained why more open talks about sex would make children aware about the ill intentions of the molesters and would deter the molester from carrying out these heinous acts.
Then we has a small talk from Nickoley Kinni, who tried to ensure that she brought smile to atleast one person every day through out a month in december 2012.
Finally, it was time to rock the house. It was courtsey a band assembled by NSPA, that played the poems by Kabir with a reggae-rock sound. It brought down the curtains to an awesome event.
Of course, there was a networking event later that I didn't attend. It was for interesting people to talk about the interesting things that they do. So I skipped it, as after all I am just a boring guy that fills spreadsheets sitting in a corporate office. ;)

Lonavala

Outbound trainings are always fun. It was a great way to kick-start the new year. It was a two day trip (3rd and 4th Jan) to lonavala with my extended team at office. We put up at a hotel called Fariyas, and indulged in various activities like, doing a skit, making a movie, playing various fun filled games, going on treasure hunts, etc.
I have always believed that activities are the best way to bring people together and learn more about each other. The more challenging the targets or tasks, the greater is the sense of collaboration that people show and go on to shed their inhibitions, bringing out their inner selves.
Of course, it is going to be back to square one, once we are back to meetings, conference calls, project meetings, listening to rumors and fighting out on operational issues, but at least, you know that there is a different person behind all that official communication.

By the bay

I realized that its been quite a while since I had been to Marine drive. So decided to meet a friend there. It is a pleasant place to be during these winter evenings. There is a chill in the air that is seldom found in this bustling city. Though I would say it is always a pleasure to sit and watch the sea relentlessly hitting the rocks at the bay. There are always some people burning calories running around, and the couples sharing some moments together, and some married ones who come with their kids playing around, and the groups of friends engaged in some discussions or some leg-pulling and of course some people who sit alone and find some solitude looking at the wide ocean in front of them.
Then, there are the vendors who have this lovely job of pestering all these people to see if they would like to have a cup of chai, chana jhol garam, baloons etc. and the occasional hinjras and small kids begging with a smile on their face, like the hunchbacked old man wrapped in saffron who went along that evening meeting everyone saying that he didn't want anything as his lord had given him everything, but still if anyone has 16-aanas to spare then he would be happy to take them.

After spending some time near the bay, I met a friend of mine and we went to Pizza by the bay, which I hadn't visited since it got renovated. It certainly has a pretty classy look now and the food was decent enough. Then I treated with friend with a specialty that I got to know about, the biskit ice-cream just a few steps away. Then another stroll by the sea and then we parted to go home.

The new year rings in...

I was mightyly surprised when I came to know that I had an holiday on 1st Jan. I wasn't really planning for a new years party, but when my company too thinks that I should be having fun on new years eve, then who am I to object. I have always spent the new years at home, as I didnt quite like the idea of spending it somewhere outside amongst strangers. I planned to stay indoors this time around as well but then a friend of mine called up and asked if I had any plans else we could hang out today. Anyways, in a spur of a moment I decided to go out. So I rushed out of office and came back to room, to change and hurry out. We went to Big nasty in Bandra, but were refused stag entry. Well we were four guys, with one of them tagging along a his g/f. (whatever happened to those golden ol' days when boys used to have fun). Anyways we headed to elbo room then. one of the guys was a regular there, so no problem there. Thankfully we were early there and thus got ourselves a seat. The drinks started pouring in, though in limits as we were a bit conscious about starting the new year by still having some money in our wallets :P
Anyways, it was a pretty dark room and too congested a place to dance, but then who can stop those who can't stop themselves at the DJ's call. (Though I must say that the DJ was not all that great). Anyways, we rang into the new year unnoticed. No countdowns, no screams etc. Just some song playing out loud on the DJ's console. A few dance floor swoopers, few gals who were down on drinks and a few guys who were happy with that. Anyways, we decided to move out by 1.30 and move towards carter road. thankfully we did that, had shwarmas at Carter's blue and then had gelatos. kinda weird combination (Dont try it). There after my friends made a move and I stayed back, I dont know why. Maybe just wanted to absorb the magic of the night for some more time. Maybe, just feel the tinge of cold in the air of Mumbai, or maybe just sit all by myself for sometime near the sea shore and wish myself a happy new year...